Early-stage design is an essential part of the design process, as it allows designers to conceive and explore preliminary ideas while informing downstream processes. Its goal is not to generate full-fledged designs, but rather to aid visual observation and communication of coarse mental images. Current design practices primarily utilize sketching and 3D modeling for early-stage ideation. While sketching is an efficient means for expressing ideas, it is limited to a single viewpoint and also requires good drawing skills. Existing CAD tools on the other hand were developed in the computer as a tool paradigm, where it serves as a passive vessel for design. These methods failed to fully leverage the computer-as-a-partner approach where the digital medium is treated as an active participant in a creative design process. As a result, traditional CAD tools primarily serve final-stage detailed design processes, where expert-level design and tool operation skills are required. They are not conducive towards quick capturing and recording of fleeting ideas and rapid exploration of the design space, both of which are necessary to ensure a high quality end product and reduce design time and cost in downstream processes. Therefore, improvements are needed in the field.
The attached drawings are for purposes of illustration and are not necessarily to scale.